USC’s Andy Enfield explains his comment about ‘slow’ UCLA

SAN FRANCISCO >> With dozens of reporters spread out before him, Andy Enfield sat on the stage at the Pac-12 Networks studio and awaited questions.

The first one involved, of course, crosstown rival UCLA.

Last week, USC’s first-year head coach interrupted one of his practices to berate his team for not running his high-tempo offense effectively. Frustrated, he said to them: “We play up-tempo basketball here. If you want to play slow, go to UCLA.

A reporter from the San Jose Mercury News wrote it down, and the quote jolted its way through the national media — not what Enfield wanted or expected.

“I have a very sarcastic personality,” he said Thursday. “I don’t use a lot of profanity to motivate my players, but I do use sarcasm. I was very upset with my team that particular moment in practice. I blew my whistle, yelled a little bit, and that’s what came out of my mouth.

“It was meant to make a point about how we want to play and to use some sarcasm. It certainly was not to disrespect Steve (Alford) or what he’s doing.”

Senior guard J.T. Terrell also tried to defuse any talk of a more intense rivalry with the Bruins, with whom they split last year’s season series.

“There’s no hate toward UCLA,” he said. “I don’t think they hate us. The fans might get into it more than we do, but I have a lot of friends on UCLA. It’s a rivalry, and the fans really go at it, but I just look at it as bragging rights. Holding the ‘W’ over my friends’ heads.”

Enfield became a little defensive when asked again about comparisons to UCLA a few minutes later. Asked if he and Alford both being first-year coaches made it more imperative to debut well and establish hold of the city, Enfield paused for a few seconds before responding.

“I don’t see it like that at all,” he said. “I have — we don’t focus on UCLA. We’re in the Pac-12. We have to beat 11 other teams to do what we’re trying to do. And then on a national scale, so we play UCLA twice every year. And we have 29 other games.

“So in my eyes, there’s no hidden agenda or rivalry. We don’t sit around and talk about UCLA.

Run and gun

USC picked up Enfield largely due to his Sweet Sixteen run last season with Florida Gulf Coast, a team that alley-ooped its way past No. 2-seed Georgetown and No. 7-seed San Diego State — beating both by 10 points.

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That has filtered into the Trojans’ practices too.

“There’s been a lot of people getting dunked on,” Terrell said. “We’re just hoping we can transfer that to the court, to the game.”

Enfield tried to downplay the significance of him deploying such a scheme, especially given his team’s youth.

“Basketball players in today’s game are fast,” he said. “They’re long. They’re athletic. They’re physically very gifted and strong. So to me, that’s just a natural to play like that. You watch the NBA, that’s how they play. They play fast, 24-second shot clock. So we really try to focus on the 24-second shot clock versus the 35.”